Amazon Mobile Payments Set to Boost Conversions

Boom! Did you hear that noise? That’s the sound of obstacles to mobile conversion tumbling down.

Yes, this month Amazon has launched a powerful attack on one of the key hindrances to customers converting on phones that firms like Mobile1st and comScore have been talking about: the ease and security of paying for goods. Amazon Payments will be offered as a service to online retailers starting immediately.

“Amazon is the only one to have really cracked mobile conversion. And now, they are planning to share Amazon Payments with the world. This is a game-changer.”Tom West, CEO, Springbox

Amazon Payments is the easy checkout and payment service featured on the company’s website. It requires a mere click to purchase goods: no need to peck out 16-digit credit card numbers, billing and shipping addresses, and email. The checkout solution is a major motor propelling Amazon’s surge to retailing dominance with $107 billion in sales worldwide in 2015.

How Mobile Payments Increase Conversion Rates

Why is this a “game-changer”?

Unfortunately, conversion rates on smartphones notably lag behind online sales on desktop computers and tablets. Two top mobile obstacles to customers completing their transactions are, according to comScore: customer issues at checkout, such as security fears and difficulties in inputting credit card data, and poor visual experiences – whether information is hard to read, product images are unclear, or outright visual glitches in the mobile display. In fact, data from comScore shows that users’ visual experience along with checkout issues comprise over 80% of the reasons consumers are reluctant to purchase on mobile.

Now here’s the good news: Amazon Payments (along with newly announced Apple Pay and PayPal) directly addresses the security issues and user experience in checkout that until now have hindered customers. Meanwhile, Mobilizer ‒ the easy online mobile device testing solution ‒ helps marketing teams quickly identify issues with users’ visual experience. Add these solutions together, and you have all the tools necessary to address the majority of issues blocking mobile conversions. Together they boost conversions rates and unleash a powerful surge of consumer purchases on mobile platforms.

Here’s an additional explosive aspect of Amazon Payments as a mobile payment tool: Millions of people are already in Amazon’s active customer base with credit cards on file. In 2015, the number of active customerssurpassed 270 million, reports Statistica. PayPal, in comparison, has 179 million active customers. But both are dwarfed by Apple and its potential Apple Pay systems, since 800 million customers possess Apple iTunes Store accounts.

Whatever numbers you focus on, these cumulative efforts to enhance mobile payments, visual usability, and security are sure to elevate conversion rates. They mark a new stage in the onward and upward march of mobile until it reaches its final destination: worldwide dominance of eCommerce. Thanks to solutions like Amazon Payments, Apple Pay, and Mobilizer, the difference between mobile conversion rates and desktop conversion rates is dwindling further and further.

Mobile1st is the company behind Mobilizer, the mobile optimization platform. Mobilizer helps companies increase revenue and engagement by enabling them to see exactly what their mobile users see, quickly identify display issues, monitor metrics by device, and optimize the mobile customer experience.